§ 3. Mr. Gardnerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to control the activities of private detectives.
§ Mr. Elystan MorganMy right hon. Friend does not think that he would be justified in doing so.
§ Mr. GardnerMay I apologise to my hon. Friend and ask the supplementary question which I intended to ask on Question No. 1? Is my hon. Friend aware of the great concern on this matter which has been expressed in the many Private Members' Bills introduced by hon. Members on both sides of the House?
§ Mr. MorganI would not deny that there are certain problems, but I do not concede that they are such as to demand the course which is pressed upon me by my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. HoggWill the Minister consult his noble friend the Lord Chancellor, who I know to be very interested in both these questions, and will he seriously consider whether, independently of the general right to privacy, bugging and industrial espionage should be separately dealt with?
§ Mr. MorganIndustial espionage, in the sense of prying into industrial secrets, is a matter for the Board of trade and not for the Home Office.
§ Mr. Alexander W. LyonWill the Home Office and any other Department concerned with this matter resist the blandishments of the right hon. and learned Member for St. Marylebone (Mr. Hogg) to deal piecemeal with the question of privacy, since the principles that underlie any particular aspect of intrusion into privacy relate also to every other intrusion into privacy? What is required is a general law of privacy, towards which the rest of the world is beginning to move while we are lagging behind.
§ Mr. MorganThese questions range very much wider than Question No. 3, which deals with private detectives.